The present invention relates generally to an electrical connector and, more particularly, to a surface mount connector.
Typically, a surface mount connector comprises an insulator containing at least two rows of contact passages. The contacts mounted in the two rows of passages have rearwardly extending tails that are bent so that the end portions of the tails lie in a common plane for engaging conductive traces on the surface of a printed circuit board. The tails are normally attached to the traces by re-flow soldering techniques. Normally the contacts are initially mounted into the passages in the connector insulator while the tails are straight. Thereafter, the tails are formed into their desired configuration so that their end portions will lie in a common plane. Such forming of the tails after the contacts are mounted in the insulator is often quite difficult to accomplish particularly when the spacing between the rows of contacts, and the adjacent contacts in each row, is very close. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,418,972; 4,628,410 and 4,631,637 disclose various types of surface mount connectors.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a surface mount connector in which the tails of the contacts may be properly bent for engaging the surface of a printed board prior to mounting of the contacts in the connector insulator, thus overcoming the difficulties attendant with prior art connectors in forming the tails after the contacts are mounted in the insulator. Another object of the invention is to provide a surface mount connector which is relatively inexpensive and easy to assembly.